The Neltje Blanchan Memorial Writing Award Inspired by Nature, $1,000, is given annually for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script informed by a relationship with the natural world.

  This award is designed to bring attention to writers in Wyoming who have not yet received wide recognition for their work, and to support emerging writers at crucial times in their careers. Poets, fiction writers, essayists, and script writers who have published no more than one book in each genre and who are not students or faculty members are invited to apply by submitting manuscripts and an entry form by the deadline.


Guidelines for the 2025 Neltje Blanchan Writing Award Inspired by Nature

Eligibility Requirements:

• Must be at least 18 years of age at time of application.
• Must not be a full-time student pursuing high school, college, or university art-related degrees.
• Must not be full-time college faculty.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or have legal resident status (evidence of U.S. citizenship, resident status and state residency may be required).
• May not be affiliated with the Wyoming Arts Council either as a board member or staff member, including their families, whether full-time, part-time or contractual.
• May not be an employee of the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.
• Must have been domiciled within the state borders for a total of 20 months in the previous two years.
• Must remain a Wyoming resident for at least one year after award, living in the state for at least 10 months of the year.
• Must not have received a Blanchan or Doubleday award in the last four years. You may apply for these awards if you received a 2023-2024 (or previous year) creative writing fellowship.
• You may not have received a 2024-2025 (or current year) Arts Council creative writing fellowship.
• You may enter if you have never published a book, if you’ve published only one full-length book of fiction, poetry or nonfiction, or if you have published no more than one book of poetry, one of fiction, and one of nonfiction (self-publication excluded).

Manuscript guidelines:

• Submit work in one genre only.
• Writing may have been previously published. 
• Manuscript must be consecutively page-numbered. Include title of work and page numbers on each page.
• Your name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript.
• If you submit more than the allowed page limits (see below), extra pages will be removed; you will not be notified.
• If novel or play/film synopses are part of the manuscript (this is often helpful to the juror), include them in the total page number count.

Length requirements:

• Poetry, maximum length: 10 pages. Type single-spaced using a 12-point standard font, with no more than one poem per page.
• Fiction and creative nonfiction, maximum length: 25 pages. Type double-spaced using a 12-point standard font. 
• Drama and screenplays, maximum length: 25 pages. Must be typed and presented in the standard, industry-accepted format for the type of script submitted.

Submission procedures:

• You may enter the competition once only, by midnight MT on Thursday, November 14, 2024.

After you submit your application:

• Your name and credentials are not available to juror; all manuscripts are identified by number. Juror will not critique individual manuscripts.

If you win an award:

• You’ll receive $1,000. At the discretion of the juror, no award may be given.
• You’ll sign a contract which verifies that you’re eligible to receive this award.
• You must remain a Wyoming resident for at least one year after award, living in the state for at least 10 months of the year.
• You’ll retain the right of publication to the work you produce during the award period.
• You must fill out a final report, due August 30, 2026, which asks questions about how this award helped you and what you accomplished during the year. There are no requirements regarding work you complete during the award period or how you use the funds.
• You may receive an additional stipend to travel in the state to read your work.

The Juror

Dawn Wink, PhD  is a writer and educator whose work explores wildness, beauty, and imagination. Wink’s novel, Meadowlark, was awarded the Women Writing the West WILLA Award for Historical Fiction/Finalist, High Plains Book Award for Woman Writer/Finalist, and NM/AZ Book Awards for Historical Fiction/Finalist. Other publications include, Teaching Passionately: What’s Love got To Do With It?, co-written with Joan Wink, “Wild Waters: Landscapes of Language,” and “Language, Culture, and Land: Lenses of Lilies.” Wink lives with her family in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Frank Nelson Doubleday Writing Award for Writing by a Woman of $1,000 is given for the best poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, or script written by a woman writer.
 

This award is designed to bring attention to writers in Wyoming who have not yet received wide recognition for their work, and to support emerging writers at crucial times in their careers. Poets, fiction writers, essayists, and script writers who have published no more than one book in each genre and who are not students or faculty members are invited to apply by submitting manuscripts and an entry form by the deadline.


Guidelines for the 2025 Frank Nelson Doubleday Writing Award for Writing by a Woman

Eligibility Requirements:

• Must be at least 18 years of age at time of application.
• Must not be a full-time student pursuing high school, college, or university art-related degrees.
• Must not be full-time college faculty.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or have legal resident status (evidence of U.S. citizenship, resident status and state residency may be required).
• May not be affiliated with the Wyoming Arts Council either as a board member or staff member, including their families, whether full-time, part-time or contractual.
• May not be an employee of the Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources.
• Must have been domiciled within the state borders for a total of 20 months in the previous two years.
• Must remain a Wyoming resident for at least one year after award, living in the state for at least 10 months of the year.
• Must not have received a Blanchan or Doubleday award in the last four years. You may apply for these awards if you received a 2023-2024 (or previous year) creative writing fellowship.
• You may not have received a 2024-2025 (or current year) Arts Council creative writing fellowship.
• You may enter if you have never published a book, if you’ve published only one full-length book of fiction, poetry or nonfiction, or if you have published no more than one book of poetry, one of fiction, and one of nonfiction (self-publication excluded).
• You must be a woman. 

Manuscript guidelines:

• Submit work in one genre only.
• Writing may have been previously published. 
• Manuscript must be consecutively page-numbered. Include title of work and page numbers on each page.
• Your name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript.
• If you submit more than the allowed page limits (see below), extra pages will be removed; you will not be notified.
• If novel or play/film synopses are part of the manuscript (this is often helpful to the juror), include them in the total page number count.

Length requirements:

• Poetry, maximum length: 10 pages. Type single-spaced using a 12-point standard font, with no more than one poem per page.
• Fiction and creative nonfiction, maximum length: 25 pages. Type double-spaced using a 12-point standard font. 
• Drama and screenplays, maximum length: 25 pages. Must be typed and presented in the standard, industry-accepted format for the type of script submitted.

Submission procedures:

• You may enter the competition once only, by midnight MT on Thursday, November 14, 2024.

After you submit your application:

• Your name and credentials are not available to juror; all manuscripts are identified by number. Juror will not critique individual manuscripts.

If you win an award:

• You’ll receive $1,000. At the discretion of the juror, no award may be given.
• You’ll sign a contract which verifies that you’re eligible to receive this award.
•  You must remain a Wyoming resident for at least one year after award, living in the state for at least 10 months of the year. 
• You’ll need to supply a bio and photograph for publicity, and the Arts Council will ask permission to publish some of your work in its publications.
• You’ll retain the right of publication to the work you produce during the award period.
• You must fill out a final report, due August 30, 2026, which asks questions about how this award helped you and what you accomplished during the year. There are no requirements regarding work you complete during the award period or how you use the funds.
• You may receive an additional stipend to travel in the state to read your work.

The Juror

Dawn Wink, PhD  is a writer and educator whose work explores wildness, beauty, and imagination. Wink’s novel, Meadowlark, was awarded the Women Writing the West WILLA Award for Historical Fiction/Finalist, High Plains Book Award for Woman Writer/Finalist, and NM/AZ Book Awards for Historical Fiction/Finalist. Other publications include, Teaching Passionately: What’s Love got To Do With It?, co-written with Joan Wink, “Wild Waters: Landscapes of Language,” and “Language, Culture, and Land: Lenses of Lilies.” Wink lives with her family in Santa Fe, New Mexico.